Pages

From Jefferson’s Second Draft No person hereafter coming into this country shall be held in slavery under any pretext whatever. From Jefferson’s Third Draft No person hereafter coming into this country shall be held within the same in slavery under any pretext whatever.

From Jefferson’s First Draft no freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms. From Jefferson’s Second Draft No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms [within his own lands or tenements]. From Jefferson’s Third Draft No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms [within his own lands or...

Congress proceeded the same day to consider the declaration of Independance which had been reported & laid on the table the Friday preceding and on Monday referred to a commee of the whole. the pusillanimous idea that we had friends in England worth keeping terms with, still haunted the minds...

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for a people to advance from that subordination in which they have hitherto remained, & to assume among the powers of the earth the equal & independant station. ... We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable; that all men are...

That our civil rights have no dependance on our religious opinions, any more than on our opinions in physicks or geometry. ... We the General Assembly of Virginia do enact, that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious Worship, place or Ministry whatsoever, nor shall be...

If there is a gratification which I envy any people in this world it is to your country it’s music. this is the favorite passion of my soul, & fortune has cast my lot in a country where it is in a state of deplorable barbarism.

experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be, to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large,...

we shall divert through our own Country a branch of commerce which the European States have thought worthy of the most important struggles and sacrifices, and in the event of peace on terms which have been contemplated by some powers we shall form to the American union a barrier against the...

The Natural bridge, the most sublime of Nature’s works ... so beautiful an arch, so elevated, so light, and springing as it were up to heaven, the rapture of the spectator is really indescribable! [Query V, “Cascades”]

we might shew that America, though but a child of yesterday, has already given hopeful proofs of genius, as well of the nobler kinds which arouse the best feelings of man, which call him into action, which substantiate his freedom, and conduct him to happines [Query VI, “Productions Mineral,...

Every species of government has its specific principles. Ours perhaps are more peculiar than those of any other in the universe. It is a composition of the freest principles of the English constitution, with others derived from natural right and natural reason. To these nothing can be more...

Deep rooted prejudices entertained by the whites; ten thousand recollections, by the blacks, of the injuries they have sustained; new provocations; the real distinctions which nature has made ... will divide us into parties, and produce convulsions which will probably never end but in the...

Reason and free enquiry are the only effectual agents against error.
... Reason and persuasion are the only practicable instruments. To make way for these, free enquiry must be indulged; and how can we wish others to indulge it while we refuse it ourselves. [Query XVII, “Religion”]

But is the spirit of the people an infallible, a permanent reliance? Is it government? Is this the kind of protection we receive in return for the rights we give up? Besides, the spirit of the times may alter, will alter. Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless. A single zealot may...

The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. [Query XVIII, “Manners”]

The bill reported by the revisors does not itself contain this proposition; but an amendment containing it was prepared, to be offered to the legislature whenever the bill should be taken up, and further directing, that they should continue with their parents to a certain age, then be brought up,...

I think a change already perceptible, since the origin of the present revolution. The spirit of the master is abating, that of the slave rising from the dust, his condition mollifying, the way I hope preparing, under the auspices of heaven, for a total emancipation, and that this is disposed, in...

The error seems not sufficiently eradicated, that the operations of the mind, as well as the acts of the body, are subjects to the coercion of the laws. But our rulers can have authority over such natural rights only as we have submitted to them. The rights of conscience we never submitted, we...

Is uniformity of opinion desirable? No more than face or stature ... Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advance one inch towards uniformity. What has been...

Those who labour in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever he had a chosen people, whose breasts he has made his peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue. [Query XIX, “Manufactures”]

296,852, the number of free inhabitants, are to 270,762, the number of slaves ... Under the mild treatment our slaves experience, and their wholesome, though coarse, food, this blot in our country increases as fast, or faster, than the whites. During the regal government, we had at one time...